RetroIndy: The Hamilton Avenue slayings of 2006

Seven family members were victims in the worst multiple killing in Indianapolis

Jan. 9, 2013 11:59 AM

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The crime

The worst mass killing in Indianapolis history began just after dusk on June 1, 2006, police say, when two men wielding an assault rifle and a handgun knocked on the front door of 560 Hamilton Ave. Inside were Alberto Covarrubias and Emma Valdez, their two young sons and Valdez’ 5-year-old grandson.

The lights went out, and neighbors and witnesses soon saw two of Valdez’s adult children, Flora and Magno Albarran, arrive at the house. A friend waiting in a car heard Flora, 22, yell “Stay outside!” as she was pulled through the front door, and then, as shots rang out, “Not my baby!”

Only the gunmen left alive.

Police found seven bodies: one in the front living room, two face-down on the dining-room floor, and another in the kitchen; the bodies of all three children were together, face-down on a bed in a back bedroom. Police recovered 23 shell casings, but no murder weapons were recovered.

The victims

Emma Valdez, 46; her daughter Flora Albarran, 22; her son Magno Albarran, 29; Alberto Covarrubias, 56; his children with Valdez, Alberto Covarrubias, 11, and David Covarrubias, 8; and Flora Albarran's son Luis, 5. (For more on the victims, see the Key Figures section at IndyStar.com/hamiltonave)

The suspects

Desmond Turner, 31, and James Stewart, 33, each faced about two dozen charges, including murder and confinement for each victim, robbery and burglary. Turner was found guilty on all counts by a judge at his trial in October and sentenced Nov. 20 to life in prison without parole. Stewart’s trial by jury was set to begin Dec. 2, following two days of jury selection.

Turner has been called the mastermind and triggerman; until a few weeks before his trial, he had faced the prospect of the death penalty. Both men have maintained their innocence, and Turner plans to appeal his convictions and sentence.

The state's case

At Turner's trial, Marion County prosecutors laid out a cold-blooded robbery plot, backed by witnesses who said they saw Turner and Stewart before and after the killings. Prosecutors said the men entered the house seeking a rumored cache of cocaine and money, but such a stash didn’t exist. Prosecutors believe Stewart's handgun was responsible for one of the shots that hit the victims, with the rest coming from Turner's assault rifle. One important kind of evidence lacking in the case against Turner was DNA or other physical evidence directly tying him to the crime scene.

Defense strategy

Turner’s attorneys challenged the accounts of state witnesses based on a long-running feud between Valdez’s son, Mario Albarran — who wasn't at the house — and another family in the neighborhood. Judge Robert Altice said at Turner's trial that the defense failed to establish a reasonable theory of innocence.

Stewart's attorney, Richard Bucheri, has said he will present an alibi for Stewart on the night of the killings.

Why separate trials?

The judge decided to hold separate trials because witness statements implicated both Turner and Stewart, a touchy legal problem for cases with more than one defendant. Turner, in exchange for prosecutors' dismissal of the death penalty, waived his right to a jury, opting to have the judge rule on his guilt instead. Stewart's trial will have a jury of 12, plus four alternates.

Other multiple-victim killings

Indianapolis: In August 1981, King Edward Bell shot to death his children and killed his estranged wife and her mother. He pleaded guilty but mentally ill and committed suicide in prison in 1987.

Central Indiana: In March 2000, Judy Kirby intentionally caused a head-on collision in Morgan County, killing one adult and six children including three of her own. She is serving 215 years in prison.